Means for purifying elastic fluids.



A. E. R ATEAU. ANS FOR PURIFYJNG ELASTIC FLUIDS.

APPLICATION HLED' APILIIB. m4.

- Patented May '23, 1916.

4.1. A 'TTO RNEY- A. C. E. RATEAU.

MEANS FOR PURIFYING ELASTIC FLUIDS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 16 l9i4.

11v Vii 1v TOR. 4. Q4. ,QL

A TTQF/VEY.

Patented May 23, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

7 [ISIS/i5: K 521 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AU'GUSTE C. E. RATEAU. OF PARIS. FRANCE. ASSTGNOR TO RATFAU BATTU SMOOT COMPANY. OF NEW YORK. N. Y.. A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

MEANS FOR PURIFYING ELASTIC FLUIDS.

Application filed April 16. 1914.

lie it known that l. Arous'rr. (l. E. Riv 'riuir. a citizen of the Repuhlie of France. r siding in Paris. l'ranee. have invented rertain new and useful ln'iprovements in Means tor Purifying lllastie Fluids, of hirh the following is a true and exact de' r-(lil)ll()ll. rei'erenre heingg had to the :lCCOllh panying drawings. whirh form a part thereof.

lliy present invention consists in improved means for purifying elastic fluids.

leretolore. fans and centrifugal eompressors have heen found very useful in sep arating tar and dust particles out of gases in which surh partieles are held in suspeie sion. in order to purify a gas in this manner. it is neeessary for the tan or compressor to impart a eertain veloeity of movement t the gas. hut as the gas delivered hy the purifying apparatus must ordinarily he utilized at a pressure hut little. if any,ahove that at which the gas passes to the appara tus. .i portion of the veloeity imparted t th gas is ordinarily lost. and in some cases all of this veloicity is lost. thus involving a rertain we to. of energy.

The primary ohjeet of my present invention is to redue the amount of energythus lost. This 1 accomplish by passing the gas, after its delivery from the. fan or compressor and after the purification for which velocity has been imparted to the gas/is e't' ieeteil. through a turhine. which abstracts and utilizes some of the energy (if velocity of th gas, so that l therehy recover a portion of the energymparted to the gas by the tan or eompressor. My present invention ('onsists in suitahle ll[)[);D'zltllS,fOl treating gas in the manner deserihed.

The various features of novelty Which eharaelerize my invention are pointed out with partieularity in the claims annexed and forming a part of this specification. For a hetter understainling of the invention, however. and of the advantages possessed hy it. reference should he had to the accompan vin; drawings and deseri 'itive matter in whir'n l have illustrated and deserihed'varioils iorms in whirh my invention may he enihodied.

it the drawings: Figure 1 is a sectional elevation oi one form of apparatus constr ated in are-.a-danee with the present in Specification of Letters Patent.

' always a t en i ed May 53. 1916.

Serial No. 932283.

\enlion: iii. 3 is a partial seeti nal elevation of a modified mm of apparatus: l liii i a seriional elmaiion of apparatus dilier in; from that damn in i'igr. l in having! sev eral {an and lurhine wheel elements eon; uerted in series: and hig. l i:- a partial see tional elevation of apparatus ditierin from that shown in Fig. 1 hr the addition oil liq uid jets l'or srparaliug dust iron: the gas.

The ga purit'ving: apparatus shown in Fig. l eomprises a easing: 4) formed with an inlet through whi'rh [he gas to he purilied passes to the tan wheel l). The as pas ing through the inn wheei ll is rharged at the periphery of ihe latter into an annular vhumhor wherein the tarry. dust or like paztielv-s are separated from the L'as. The gas pa ses. from the --hainher (l through stationary nozzles l whirh direet the gas into inillli'liti's of a turhioe whe l I) fixed to the harh oi the fan wheel in any suitahle manner. I i the outlet for the piirilied gas.

lue a tuu; oi the lan on the gas is t In erea igits veloeit and. a the direction oi W loeitv of the gas is altered in the ehamher the via: heavy tarry and dust partieles are thrown h i-entrit'uual action to the heriiihery ol' the hamliert and eventually fall into the lower part of this ehamher. The nozzles l) whirl: are suhstitnted for the ditl'nsor eonnnonly used in fans. are so arranged that there is no transformation of the energy of veloeitr of the gas into energy of pressure proilueed in the passage of the gases through the. nozzles l which gives rise to a eonsiderahle loss in en e rgy.

The turhine. utilizes the. energy of velocity ahstrarted from the gases in the hest possihle manner. for the power furnished hV the turhine is direelly utilized in driviniq the fan. and is to he suhtraeted ram the power \vhieh it would otherwise he neeesnto impart to the fan from the external (ll'lYUlg element (not shown in the draW- ing's whirh may he eo n eted to the coupling. part arried h) Jihe haft I) ol the fan. in the prartieal use of my invention, the motive power whirh must he Furnished to the shaft of the m. hy the external drivin; element is low red hy as inurh as onethird or oneouarier from that which would he. neeessary without the use (it the turbine wheel referred to above. The turbine wheel in my apparatus will. ordinarily bring the pressure of the gas at the outlet of the apparatus to an approximate equality with the pressure of the gas belore it entered the apparatus. It will be obvious however that the exhaust pressure of the gas can be brought to any predetermined value at which it is desired to use the gas and in all cases the turbine should be designed. of course, to give the desired delivery pressure.

Instead of making the turbine wheel integral with the fan, as shown in Fig. l, the fan and turbine may (uite as well be made independent, provided they remain fixed to the same shaft. The separation of the turbine and fan wheels is advantageous when it is desired to use a cylindrical or slightly conical annular chamber between the outlet of the fan proper and the inlet of the tur bine wheel. Such a construction is shown in Fig. 2, wherein the casing O is formed with the annular chamber M between the fan out let from the fan l3 and the nozzles I) lead-- ing to the inlet to the turbine wheel E. In passing through this chamber the gas rotates, thus giving an increased opportunity for separating the dust or other matters held in suspension in the gas. While it is possible to mount the turbine wheel and an in separate casings, this arrangement is, generally spoaking. less :u'lyantagcous than the arrangement of the turbine and tan in the same casing. it is possible also to have the turbine and fan connected to separate shafts, but in this case the power recovered in the turbine is n t directly utilized in reducing the power from an external source which it is necessary to apply to the shaft of the fan in order to drive the latter.

When the apparatus is used to extract tar or analogous products from the gas, there is a tendency for solidified particles to gather in consecutive layers in the interior- Of the chamber C, the rei noval of which re quires the scraping of the inner wall of the chamber from time to time. On account of the interruption in the service. and the labor cost which this scraping involves, it should be avoided ii possible. In order to avoid an inconvenience of this kind. steam has heretofore been injected into gas boosters to melt the tar thus collecting. A. preferable means for accomi'ilishing a similar result is to surround each chamber C in which tar or analogous matter is .arnted from the gas by a hot fluid jacket i, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3. Steam or other suitable hot fluid employed enters the ja ket (i through the opening H and the water of condensation or cooled heating iluid pas-cs out oi the jacket thriuigh the ornicc .l. The melted tar col lecting in the bottom of the chamber C, )a :es out oi than latter thron the orifice I which should 0;.

nu l into the usual water res" ervoir or tar seal, it it is desired that the extraction of tar from the apparatusbe auto matic.

It will be understood, of course, that if a more perfect purification of the gas is de sired than can be obtained by the use of a single fan wheel, a plurality of fan wheels may be connected in series with one or more single or multiple wheel turbines, and in Fig. 3 I have shown apparatus differing from that shown in Figv 1 in that the casing is formed with a plurality of purifying chambers C in connection with each of which there is a corresponding rotary ele ment comprising a. fan wheel R nd turbine wheel E.

The fan and turbine wheel arrangements may well be the same where dust particles are to be removed from the gas as where tarry and like liquid impurities are to be removed from the gas, but in order to obtain a better separation of the dust particles, water may be injected into the passing through the fan at any suitable point. one arrangement for this purpose is shown in Fig. l, wher n a perforated pipe shown for discharging waler under pressure into the gas at the inlet to the fan wheel B. The dust agglomerates under the action of the water, and the water and dust are thrown to the periphery of the chamber (2 by cen trifugal force and the water and (lust are both discharged through the orifice I.

My invention is especially useful in chainical works, and in drying and treating light-- ing gases, and the gases from blast furnaces and gas and coke works, and, generally speaking, in all industries producing a gas charged with solid or liquid matters held in suspension.

/Vhile in accordance with the provisions of the statutes, I have illustrated and described the best forms of my invention now known to me, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes maybe made in the farms of apparatus disclosed without departing from. the spirit of m y invention.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure y Letters Patent, is:

1. Gas purifying apparatus comprising in combination, a fan wheel and a turbinewheel mounted on the same shaft. and a casing in which said wheels are mounted, said casing being formed with an inlet passage through which the gas to be purified passes to the fan, a purifyinn chamber in which the gas: delivered by the fan has its direction of movement altered and in which noinguseous particles are separated from the and nozzles for directing the leaving said chamber into the turbine Wl'ie l and an outlet for the purified gas.

:2. las purifying apparatus comprising in combination, a fan wheel and a turbine wheel mounted on the same shaft, and a casing in which said wheels are mounted, said casing being formed with an inlet passage through which the gas to be purified passes to the fan, a purifying chamber in which the gas delivered by the-fan has its direction of movement altered and in which nongaseous particles are separated from the gas, nozzles for directing the gas leaving said chamber into the turbine wheel and an outlet for the purified gas, and means for injecting liquid into the gas.

3. his purifying apparatus comprising in combination. a fan wheel and a turbine wheel mounted on the same shaft, and a casing'in which said wheels are mounted, said casing being formed with an inlet passage through which the gas to be purified passes to the fan, a purifying chamber in which the gas delivered by the fan has its direction of movement altered and in which non-gaseous.

particles are separated from the gas, and nozzles for directing the gas leaving said chamber into the turbine wheel and an outlet for the purified gas, said purifying chamber being surrounded by a heating jacket and being formed with an outlet for escape of melted impurities collecting at the bottom of said purifying chamber.

4. Gas purifying apparatus comprising in combination, means for-utilizing mechanical energy in imparting energy of velocity to the gas, means for altering the direction of flow of the gas to which velocity has been imparted in order to separate non-gaseous particles therefrom, and means for abstract- 5. Gas purifying apparatus comprising in combination, mechanical means for impart ing energy of velocity to the gas to be purified. means for altering the direction of flow of the gas to which velocity has been imparted in order to separate non-gaseous par- 1 6. Gas purifying apparatus comprising in V combination, a plurality of fan wheels and one or more turbine wheels mounted on the same shaft and a casing inclosing said wheels and provided with ports, chambers and noz zles for causing the gas treated to pass through the difi'erent wheels receivingenergv from said fan wheels and imparting energy to said turbine wheels said chambers including one or more in which the gas has its direction of velocity altered in order to effect a separation of non-gaseous particles.

7. Gas purifying apparatus comprising in combination, a plurality of elements mounted on the same shaft and each comprising a fan wheel and a turbine wheel, and a casing inclosing said elements and comprising means whereby the gas to be treated is caused to flow through said elements successively passing from the fan wheel of each element to the turbine wheel thereof through a cham her in which the velocity of the gas is altered and through nozzles directing the gas into the turbine Wheel.

AUGUSTE C. E. RATEAU.

ing some of the energy of velocity of the Witnesses:

gas and utilizing the energy abstracted in performing useful work.

CHAS. P. PRESSLY, Armrwr \Twwwts. 

